A GRASSY bank overlooking the River Avon at Offenham is one of the jewels in the crown of Worcestershire Wildlife Trust.

Windmill Hill is among the few nature reserves owned by the trust which includes rare wildflower grasslands.

The trust in currently helping in an initiative to contribute to halting the decline in the county's wildflower grasslands by donating seed as part of a larger movement to encourage landowners and managers to restore and protect the few surviving flower-rich grasslands in the county.

Worcestershire has 25 per cent of the remaining wildflower grasslands and traditional hay meadows in the country, even after losing around three-quarters of its grasslands in the last 30 years. Damage to remaining meadows has largely been caused by agricultural intensification or neglect and this together with other pressures continue to affect their survival.

Grass seed collected from its Eades Meadow reserve will be used initially as a valuable resource aiming to restore meadows traditionally part of the landscape.

The trust's Kate Thomas said that Eades Meadow was a particularly special site, managed as a wildflower nature reserve. The land has not been ploughed for over 165 years and has never been treated with any artificial fertilisers or herbicides.

She explained: "Although it is possible to buy wildflower seed commercially, this seed will have a local provenance it is normally difficult to secure. It is hoped that through similar collections elsewhere, such as Windmill Hill, the availability of local seed will gradually grow and more restoration work will be undertaken."

The harvest is being carried out by Tony Strickland, of TGS Seeds, working with The Grassland Forum, a grouping of landowners and managers interested in securing the future of grasslands.

Mrs Thomas said: "He uses special equipment which moves through the field and brushes the seed from the flowers. It leaves the grassland intact and ready for the later hay cut which is part of the normal annual management of the meadow."

Those interested in supporting the work of the trust in protecting wildflower meadows should contact the trust on 01905 754909 or email worcswt@cix.co.uk